For some investors, “down round” is a dirty phrase, but no Worthwhile chapter‘small Hans Tung. Hans is a former managing director at Notable Capital GGV Capitala business firm focused on investments in the US, Latin America, Israel and Europe.
Hans, whose portfolio includes companies like Airbnb, StockX and Slack, joined TechCrunch’s Equity podcast to discuss the overall state of the venture and why he still thinks the rounds make a lot of sense. Per Hans, “An IPO is really just a milestone, not the end game. An IPO is the beginning of the participation of public investors. So when you think about long-term valuations, going up or down temporarily doesn’t matter as much as creating a big result in the end.” Notably, by September 2023, nearly 11% of annual VC deals were discounted; according PitchBook data.
Hans also told us why he is still bullish on fintech and which areas of the fintech space have him particularly psyched.
Of course, we dug recent changes in his own company, which evolved from 24-year-old cross-border firm GGV Capital and renamed its US and Asia operations Notable Capital and Granite Asia, respectively. GGV’s transformation is the latest in a series of changes we’ve seen in the venture capital world, including staff changes at Founders Fund, Benchmark and Thrive Capital.
Press play to hear what Hans has to say about these topics and more! Equity will return on Monday. See you then!
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For the full transcript of the interview, for those who prefer reading to listening, check out our full episode archive in Simplecast.
